Thousands gather for the Women's March on Washington, D.C., ending at the White House on Saturday, Jan. 21, 2017.

A year ago, they stormed the streets of big cities and small towns to make their views known: Women's rights are human rights. Many wore on their heads what became the de-facto symbol of feminism in 2017, the pink pussyhat.

The Women's March is back in 2018 with its Power to the Polls anniversary protests on the weekend of Jan. 20-21. The focus during this Women's March reboot is to register more women to vote, and to elect women and progressive candidates to public office.

But this time when marchers take to the streets in cities from Lansing to Las Vegas, there could be fewer pink pussyhats in the crowds.

The reason: The sentiment that the pink pussyhat excludes and is offensive to transgender women and gender nonbinary people who don't have typical female genitalia and to women of color because their genitals are more likely to be brown than pink.

"I personally won’t wear one because if it hurts even a few people's feelings, then I don't feel like it’s unifying," said Phoebe Hopps, founder and president of Women's March Michigan and organizer of anniversary marches Jan. 21 in Lansing and Marquette.

"I care more about mobilizing people to the polls than wearing one hat one day of the year."

Phoebe Hopps, founder and president of Women's March Michigan.

The state and national organizations, she said, have tried "to move away from the pussyhats for several months now, and are not making it the cornerstone of our messaging because ... there’s a few things wrong with the message.

"It doesn’t sit well with a group of people that feel that the pink pussyhats are either vulgar or they are upset that they might not include trans women or nonbinary women or maybe women whose (genitals) are not pink."